A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
This invention relates generally to computerized data communications and more particularly to an apparatus for interactive communication and processing for selecting, ordering, and delivering social expression cards.
Social expression cards have traditionally been merchandised in card specialty shops, supermarkets, drugstores, department stores, and other retail or wholesale establishments. Card merchants display cards in specially designed shelves and group them according to occasion and/or recipient attributes such as age, sex, or family relationship. Typically, merchants rotate their card stock seasonally based on the availability of new cards.
Today, many people are extremely busy, and have less spare time than in the past. Individuals waste time and are inconvenienced when required to patronize a store to purchase the cards. Supplying the appropriate postage may require a special trip to the post office or other facility to purchase stamps. Additional time and effort is required to address, seal, and mail the cards. As a further inconvenience, card buyers must maintain the names, addresses, occasion, and important dates corresponding to persons to whom they send cards. Due to the above problems and difficulties, social expression cards are often sent in an untimely manner, or not at all. Yet, it is generally considered a socially important way to keep in touch. In fact, business organizations are increasingly finding that personal communication products such as cards improve client, employer, and/or prospect satisfaction.
Card merchants, particularly those having limited space for card displays, such as supermarkets, may not be able to display a sufficiently wide variety of cards. Cards which are stocked may become missorted on the rack or may be soiled or damaged by constant handling. Since card buyers cannot temporarily set aside cards in which they are interested, but for which they do not have an immediate use, they must purchase the card at that time.
A number of different methods for purchasing cards are available in addition to the traditional card shop. For example, individuals may purchase cards from automated kiosks which print cards. However, buying cards from such kiosks still requires that each card be selected on an individual basis for each recipient. The user cannot automatically maintain records of card recipients and card purchases. Another limitation of these kiosks is that the buyer can only view a limited selection of cards, depending on the season. Furthermore, the buyer is inconvenienced by travelling to the site of the kiosk and waiting for the cards to be printed. The purchaser is further inconvenienced by the necessity of addressing and posting the card by hand.
It is also known that card buyers can design their own cards on personal computers. However, many individuals do not wish to spend time designing cards. Moreover, the card quality is limited by user constraints such as the quality of the user's printer, quality of the available graphics and papers, and the design ability and creativity of the user.
Thus, social expression card buyers need a method of card purchasing which does not inconvenience them with its method of selecting and sending the cards. In addition, it would be advantageous to have a method that provides a wide selection of cards which also automatically maintains recipient and purchase information about the buyer's card purchases, card recipients and associated dates.
Many of the foregoing problems are solved by the present invention. The present method and apparatus for corresponding with a card distribution center for selecting, ordering, and sending social expression cards provides a convenient and efficient alternative to methods currently available.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to permit the card buyer to select, address, and order social expression cards using a personal computer.
It is another object of the present invention to permit the card buyer to enter information into an integrated database program wherein the information may include recipient name, recipient address, occasion, and card delivery date.
It is yet another object of the present invention to present the card buyer with digitized images of a wide variety of cards which may be sorted according to occasion and content.
It is a further object of the present invention to permit the card buyer to include in a selected card a message of the buyer's choice, a digitized replica of the buyer's signature, and selected gifts or enclosures.
It is still another object of the present invention to permit the user, having selected a number of cards for a number of recipients, to send this order either via mail, telephone, or electronically, to a card repository and distribution center for processing.
It is yet another object of the present invention to permit the card repository and distribution center, upon receiving an order, to select designated cards from its stock or print the card from blank card stock, print the buyer's messages on the cards, and send the cards to the buyer or to the recipients.
The present invention uses a computer system for permitting buyers to communicate with a card distribution center for selecting, ordering, and sending social expression cards and for maintaining records of intended recipients, occasion dates and orders made. The user selects a recipient from a recipient database wherein at least a name and an address of the recipient is stored in the database. The user selects a card from a card database based upon the selected recipient name and based upon a card-giving occasion stored in a master occasion database. The selected recipient name and card-giving occasion appear on a video display device as textual and graphical images.
Each independent customer or buyer communicates from a remote site to the distribution center. The system includes a customer access terminal at each remote site having an input device for customer input of card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data. The system also includes a memory device for storage of data including the card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data. A video display device displays textual and graphical information representative of the card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data. A processor coupled to the video display device, the memory device, and the input device processes and controls the display of card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data to facilitate card selection and ordering for generating a card order responsive thereto and for generating and storing in memory, order history and order status. Additionally, a communication link couples the customer access terminal to the distribution center to permit the communication of the card order to the distribution center for processing of the card order.
A user occasion database is operatively linked to the master occasion database and is further operatively linked to the recipient database, card database, and an order history database. The user then orders the selected card from the card distribution center wherein the computer system is in operative communication with the distribution center. The card distribution center, upon receiving the order, pulls the selected cards or prints the cards from blank card stock, prints the user's message and signature on the cards, places the applicable enclosures into the cards, prints the address on the envelope, and sends the card to the designated recipients or the customer. The system can prompt the buyer to buy cards in time for given occasions and allows the user to automatically address cards. The database information may be manually entered by the user or imported into the program from another source.